The gains come even after Macquarie analyst Shawn Webster cut his rating on the stock to neutral from outperform, a move that comes less than two months after he previously upgraded the stock. “While we still think upside to Street estimates exists, we are now downgrading the stock based on valuation, as the stock has risen 24%,” Webster said in a note to clients. He kept his $3.30 price target on AMD.

Shares recently rose 1.9% to $3.28. As of 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, trading volume in the stock had already exceeded its average daily amount, according to FactSet.

As we noted yesterday, AMD has been viewed as a takeover target for years, prompting rumors that have jolted the stock on several occasions. None of those rumors have yet to come to fruition.

In other news impacting the semiconductor business, Intel Corp. named chief operating officer Brian Krzanich to be its new chief executive, continuing a trend of promoting from within the chip maker. He first joined the company in 1982 and will assume his new role in two weeks at the company’s shareholder meeting.